Cardano (ADA) surged 26% over the past week, outpacing the broader cryptocurrency market and reaching $0.195 — its highest level since July 4. The rally lifted ADA's market capitalization by 24% and allowed the token to surpass Monero (XMR), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) in market cap rankings. The move positioned ADA among the top-performing large-cap altcoins during a period of renewed appetite for digital assets.

Blockchain analytics firm Santiment noted that ADA had outperformed much of the broader altcoin market during this period.

Rally Occurs Despite Declining Wallet Count

The price recovery took place against a backdrop of falling network participation. The number of non-empty ADA wallets declined by 7,070 over the previous two months. According to Santiment, the combination of rising prices and a shrinking wallet count suggests that stronger buyers — potentially large holders or whales — have been absorbing available supply before many sidelined retail participants return.

However, Santiment cautioned that the data does not directly identify these buyers. Other factors such as wallet consolidation, transfers to exchanges, and abandoned accounts can also contribute to a lower holder count.

Santiment also connected the price recovery to a series of ecosystem developments on the Cardano blockchain. These include progress on the Leios testnet, Hydra scaling solutions, Mithril upgrades, Pyth network integration, and new Project Catalyst funding initiatives. Collectively, these upgrades target Cardano's throughput, data efficiency, and oracle connectivity — areas that competing Layer 1s have leveraged to attract DeFi and institutional usage.

Developer Activity Ranks Second Only to Ethereum

Cardano ranks among the top five projects in CoinMarketCap's bullish community sentiment rankings, reflecting growing optimism as the network continues to expand its infrastructure.

Supporters of the project have pointed to ongoing technological development, arguing that the network's progress outpaces its current market valuation. According to data from Chainspect, Cardano ranked as the second most actively developed blockchain over the past 30 days, trailing only Ethereum. Cardano recorded 43 active developers during that period, compared with 21 for Solana, while Ethereum remained the clear leader with 475 developers. The metric tracks publicly visible code contributions, which means developer counts may underrepresent teams working on private repositories or non-core infrastructure.

DeFi TVL Rebounds 9% but Remains Down Monthly

Cardano's decentralized finance ecosystem showed signs of recovery, with total value locked (TVL) rising nearly 9% over the past week to approximately $68 million. Despite this weekly rebound, DefiLlama data indicates that Cardano's TVL remains down 14% over the past month, suggesting the ecosystem has not yet fully recovered from recent declines.

Based on current TVL, Cardano ranks as the 29th largest blockchain by total value locked, positioned between Rootstock and Katana in the latest DeFi rankings. The figure remains a fraction of the billions locked on leading DeFi chains such as Ethereum and Solana, underscoring the gap between Cardano's high developer activity ranking and its current on-chain financial usage.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency prices remain highly volatile.